Water-main breaks proving deadly to fish

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, July 15, 2006

And Bay Area water-quality regulators are increasingly concerned that drinking water spilling down storm drains and into creeks has caused fish kills in places like Berkeley and Marin County.

Regional Water Quality Control Board officials are particularly concerned about a disinfectant called chloramine that water agencies nationwide have started to use instead of chlorine. Chloramine, which regulators say is not toxic to humans, is more lethal to aquatic life.

Water officials locally and nationwide have been switching to chloramine -- a mix of chlorine and ammonia that water officials say produces fewer potentially dangerous by-products for people than chlorine. But chloramine is worse for fish because it lasts longer in the environment.

Riley and co-workers became concerned about chloramine after a series of East Bay Municipal Utility District water-main breaks sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of water into three creeks, killing fish on at least two occasions in Berkeley.

Riley has since concluded that EBMUD's protocols for handling breaks, cleaning fire hydrants and replacing pipes are not adequate to prevent chloramine from getting into creeks. Her agency has been preparing to issue a notice of violation to EBMUD.

EBMUD incidents include a water-main break last year that killed 30 Sacramento sucker fish in Strawberry Creek in Berkeley and at least two involving more than 100,000 gallons of water into Codornices Creek, one in 2000 and the other last year. Steelhead have been spawning again in that creek and taxpayer-funded habitat-restoration efforts are under way.

EBMUD spokesman Charles Hardy said that his agency does a good job containing water spills, given that there are 4,000 miles of EBMUD pipe.

On average, EBMUD crews arrive to breaks within 38 minutes, and they are trained to dechloraminate water before it runs into creeks, he said.

Riley, however, said it's not enough, considering that recently there have been about 100 pipe breaks a month, while the government is spending significant amounts of money to restore wildlife to creeks hit with spills.

The State Water Resources Control Board is updating its policy to set statewide chloramine discharge standards for the first time. The agency had considered requiring extensive field monitoring for chloramine but dropped the idea after numerous water agencies, including EBMUD, said it would be impractical.

After creek advocates complained, however, the state agency's water quality chief, Darrin Polhemus, said his agency would likely set discharge limits that local water quality control boards would enforce.

The Marin Municipal Water District, which started using chloramine in 1995, caused two fish kills in 2004. In all, the spills of drinking water killed 33 trout in Corte Madera Creek and Ross Creek. Those trout could have been protected steelhead.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in 2004 became the last major water agency in the region to start using chloramine. Agency spokesman Tony Winnicker said virtually all water that goes into city storm drains goes through the city's sewer system, and thus chloramine is removed before discharge into the bay or ocean. Most cities do not treat their storm water.

Some people question whether the chemical is safe for people, and a group has formed to protest San Francisco's shift to chloramine.

Federal regulators, however, say low levels of chloramine have been used to safely disinfect drinking water for nearly a century.

Chloramine facts

Used as a disinfectant for more than a century

In low doses, not toxic to humans

Produced by combining chlorine and ammonia

Compared with just chlorine, is less likely to react with organic material in water and cause potentially carcinogenic by-products

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